Inside a hotel in Kolkata, Andrea Federico Santicoli adjusts the camera resting on his lap. The 61-year-old Swiss paraplegic photographer has spent the past several months journeying through India on his wheelchair, capturing moments most people overlook — not just with his lens, but through the lived experience of navigating an unforgiving landscape.
For Andrea, what began as another solo travel adventure has turned into a mission. “Since my earlier visit in 2025, I’ve seen how hard it is to move around here with a wheelchair,” he says. “If I, with a lightweight chair, face so many problems, what happens to someone local who cannot afford one?”
Roads without ramps
Raised pavements without ramps prove to be a challenge
Across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata, Andrea has faced challenges that would test even the most resilient traveller. Uneven roads, raised pavements without ramps, electric poles blocking footpaths — each turn becomes an obstacle course. “You have to be an athlete,” he laughs. “It’s a question of balance and luck. One wrong move and you fall.”
His tone sharpens when he recalls his visits to public places. “Shops have steps. Toilets are tiny or dirty. Even in hospitals, the so-called ‘accessible’ restrooms are a shock.” In a Mumbai government hospital, he found a toilet without a seat cover, barely usable. “If this is what a hospital looks like,” he says, “imagine what it’s like outside.”
‘Everybody has their own wheelchair’
‘Everybody has their own wheelchair,’ Andrea says. ‘Mine is physical’
Andrea’s reflections go beyond ramps and railings. “Everybody has their own wheelchair,” he says. “Mine is physical. Others carry mental ones — fear, prejudice, indifference.”
He recalls how often people block accessible toilets, only to apologise when caught. “They say, ‘Just a minute, I didn’t see.’ I tell them, yes, you don’t see, because your handicap is in the mind.”
Despite his challenges, Andrea remains quietly defiant. “I can decide to urinate on the street if I want,” he says, “but I shouldn’t be forced to because there is no other choice.” His words are not angry, only reflective — from someone long used to adapting in a world that seldom accommodates.
The project: ‘Courage, you will become’
Andrea’s aim is to document the lives of people who move through Indian cities with disabilities — especially those without means
Out of this reality was born Andrea’s new project, ‘Courage, You Will Become’. Conceived during an exhibition in Italy, it began with a simple question: how to portray courage. “I thought of India immediately,” he explains. “To live on a wheelchair here, you need courage every day.”
His aim is to document the lives of people who move through Indian cities with disabilities — especially those without means. “If rich people struggle, imagine the poor. I can call someone to build a ramp, they cannot. If I can afford a proper chair, they make do with one that’s heavy or broken.”
Andrea wants his work to start a conversation, not evoke pity. “I don’t want sympathy,” he says. “I want awareness. I want people to see this as a real issue.”
Lessons from the road
Across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata, Andrea has faced challenges that would test even the most resilient traveller
Traveling across India has revealed to Andrea both its contrasts and contradictions. In Mumbai, he found a new metro line perfectly accessible on one side — but the elevator on the other had been broken “for a very long time.”
In five-star hotels, rooms labeled “accessible” were often too small for his chair. “When I complained, they changed it,” he recalls. “But imagine someone who cannot.”
He credits India’s warmth for softening the frustration. “People are kind,” he says. “They want to help. But they don’t always know how.” Sometimes their eagerness becomes risky — lifting him or his chair without realising how delicate the balance can be.
Still, he insists, “India is not a poor country. It is a great country. It just needs awareness.”
Beyond borders
Andrea’s travels have taken him across continents — Egypt, China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the United States and Japan. “Japan is the best,” he says without hesitation. “They respect everyone, even the blind and deaf.” His time in Egypt, however, was “almost as difficult as India.”
Europe, he notes, has laws that ensure accessibility. “In Switzerland, every public toilet can be opened with one master key — only by someone with a disability certificate. It’s always clean, always big. Here, I have to wait till I return to my hotel.”
Looking ahead
‘I can’t change India,’ Andrea admits. ‘But I can make people see.’
Next on Andrea’s map is Bangladesh. “When I looked for Indian wheelchair users online, I found someone who turned out to be from Bangladesh,” he says. “So, I thought, why not go there and see what life is like?”
He hopes to expand his project beyond borders, documenting the courage of those who move through literal barriers. “I travel alone because I want to feel it myself,” he says. “You can’t photograph this reality unless you live it.”
As he prepares to head east from Kolkata, Andrea knows his journey is far from over. “I can’t change India,” he admits. “But I can make people see. Maybe someone will start to care — maybe that’s how change begins.”
In that quiet conviction lies the strength of a man whose wheelchair has never been a limitation, only a different vantage point — one that reminds the world how much more there is to see when we truly look.